Her fingers tapped lightly against the window pane as she stared outside
from her room.
It was winter now. It was now more than half a year since she left Tokyo for someplace on the other side of the world.
There would have been snow on the ground in Tokyo as well. But here, the snow was grey, turned dark by the grime of the city.
She knew that the seasons were the same, but they somehow felt different here in the city called Philadelphia. Even when inside, she never seemed to be able to shake the cold from her body.
For now, the women's college was on holiday. And so she was here with the Harris family, Miss Grace and all of her brothers and sisters included among them. It had been a busy two weeks where the family had all converged upon the home to turn it into a warm, noisy, place filled with laughter. She was able to enjoy it with them, most of the time. Sometimes, though, she held herself apart and simply watched.
Her brothers and sister, her mother, and her father - - she reflected that they too had a happy life like this once. Until the revolution.
They were on her mind almost all the time now. During the darkest times of her life, the hope of seeing them again had sustained her. An orphan, left all alone and aware of all the stories going around about her, she endured the looks of pity or outright scorn from those who knew of her family. They were once a proud family, but had met with disaster. She had avoided the suggestions from people suggesting she simply settle down and instead apprenticed herself to a doctor. She had decided to be no ordinary woman when she grew up; someday she would be a doctor and carry out her family's proud tradition.
For a while - she felt as if she would reach that dream. The doctor was a kind man and a good doctor. Unfortunately, he was a bit foolish.
And so began her personal hell under Kanryuu --- one which nearly drove her to the brink of suicide more than once. But the dim hope of her family kept her from completely breaking. And that hope revived when she found herself suddenly freed from Takeda and amongst friends who believed in her.
That hope wavered the day she met that man on the field. Yasitare Ryuji, or so he called himself. But she was not fooled, not from the moment she saw him. She knew him as her Kenichi.
She hadn't meant to run to him. She hadn't meant to talk to him. But in that one moment, she had lost all her senses and tried to tell him that she had looked for him all that time.
He had silenced her then with his own words. He had known all about her. He had kept tabs on her all these years, and had heard rumors of her talents with drugs. He despised her. Enough to change his name.
"I hated you." The words echoed in her head as he had walked away, and continued to do so now.
She deserved those words. To think she had ever once thought that she would be able to find her family and earn their forgiveness -- it had been a naive foolish thought. To go back to her friends and have to tell them those words as well. It would crush them as much as it crushed her. Rather than face them, she would hide away and suffer alone, trying to avoid anything that would remind her of Kenichi.
Even when Aoshi Shinomori's letters came trying to explain his own dark past, it didn't erase Kenichi's words to her.
A sudden knock came at the door. "Miss Megumi," the maid curtseyed as she entered. "You have a guest in the drawing room."
"A guest?"
"A gentleman." The maid's look was a bit curious. "Mrs. Harris says he's a friend of yours."
"I see," Megumi straightened her skirts and picked up a folder of papers before following her out. "Thank you."
She was expecting a Dr. Weston, one of Dr. Harris' interns, to call on her. He had mentioned it to her this morning over breakfast. The folder contained papers for a patient whom Dr. Harris had visited at home; the patient's papers would be need to be carried back to the hospital.
As she neared the parlor, she could hear the low tones of the young man and the laughter of Mrs. Harris and Miss Harris through the door that stood only slightly open. They were talking about the snow.
"Dr. Weston--" Megumi apologized as she pushed the door open. "I'm sorry to make you wait."
As she looked at their guest standing by one of the large windows, her eyes widened.
The man standing there was not Dr. Watson. As the gentleman turned his blue-grey* eyes upon her, all sensible thoughts left her head.
"Megumi, dear," Mrs. Harris said kindly. "Mr. Shinomori has come all this way to talk to you."
She suddenly remembered herself. She began with a polite greeting and automatically bowed, "It is good to see you."
Miss Grace giggled at Megumi's lapse in behavior. The situation had called for a curtsey, but Aoshi smiled nonetheless.
"It is good to see you." He answered.
"Come, Grace," Mrs. Harris said brightly. "I will need your help in the kitchen. I asked Mr. Shinomori to stay for dinner."
Grace gave her a puzzled glance but snapped to attention when Mrs. Harris winked. "Yes, mother," she suddenly exclaimed. With a curtsey, the two women left the parlor, leaving Megumi and Aoshi alone.
To cover her surprise at his appearance, she sat down in a chair facing him. He continued to stand by the window, but turned slightly to look at her.
She hesitated before she continued on in Japanese. It had been so long since she had used the language. "I did not mean to be rude. It's just that you surprised me. Did you have a good journey?"
He nodded. "It was a rather long crossing. It's taken me weeks to get here."
"Are you here on business?" She was still puzzled.
"I am here for you." He answered simply. "There are things to discuss."
She looked away, "You could have just written, Aoshi-san. What could possibly be worth such a long journey?"
"There are things to discuss that are better not left to letters. I have news for you."
Her eyes turned back towards him, worried. "What is it?"
"Yasitare Ryuji is dead."
She exhaled sharply and then composed herself. "That is sad news."
The look he gave her was incredulous. "Your brother is dead, and you can say only that?"
She avoided his scrutiny by averting her face. "I was dead to him a long time ago. I am not allowed to shed tears for a man to whom I did not exist."
Aoshi stooped next to her to look at her. "So, was that the reason for why you told me that the man wasn't your brother?"
"I lied," she tried to make her voice sound flat. "But I had good reason to. He wished it that way."
"He was lying himself. Your brother did not send you away because he hated you."
"You say that," she whispered, her eyes blinking in an attempt to hold back tears. "But you didn't hear what he told me that day when I was in the field. He knew exactly who I was, and what I had done under Kanryuu. He told me that he would forget he ever saw me and that I was to do the same. He hated me and couldn't forgive me."
He looked at her squarely in the face. "The revolution did not leave anyone of our generation untouched. Why would a man with as much to repent for hate his sister for doing what she needed to do in order to survive? "
Megumi closed her eyes. "Even after knowing what he had done, it doesn't change the fact that I dishonored the family name by keeping it and doing all those terrible things as a Takani. He hated the very sight of me because of it."
"No." Aoshi shook his head as if talking to a dense pupil. "He forgave you that a long time ago. He was trying to push you away from him to protect you. There were still those who watched him carefully." When she did not acknowledge that what he said was sensible or possible, he forced her to take a letter in her hand. "He left this for you. Please read it."
She held it for a moment and looked at it, her hand trembling. She finally looked at Aoshi with something like fear in her eyes. "I can't."
"Then," he continued talking to her patiently, "Allow me to tell you about another letter which I received. It first came to Gensai-sensei, who brought it to Himura's attention. I was the only one who knew where Yasitare was to be found, and so I was asked to help Himura."
Although her eyes were fixed on the floor, she was listening. "In that letter, Yasitare mentioned something that he wanted you to have, to guard as your own. It was his only good work in his life, he said. And so I went to retrieve that treasure."
When she did not speak or respond, he continued on more quietly, "That treasure - -- was a child."
She started. "A child?"
"Your brother's child. She was being cared for by the townsfolk when I arrived."
As the news registered in her mind, she suddenly reached out and held onto his arm for support. "Where is she now??"
"She is with Kaoru and Kenshin in Tokyo, waiting for me to bring you back."
"Kenichi's daughter," she mused. She looked up at him, almost shyly. "What is her name?"
He smiled slightly back at her. "Her name is Megumi."
"Megumi?"
A look of stupefied wonder crossed her face, followed by an odd mixture of sadness and relief. She found herself suddenly on her knees next to him, overwhelmed by the sudden insight into her brother's mind and heart. "Kenichi," she cried, not knowing what else to say.
"Yes," he answered as he wiped the tears that flowed freely down her face now -- tears of sadness, hope and happiness. "He forgave you a long time ago, after all."
She buried her face in his chest, allowing herself then to grieve -- for a brother who she had only barely seen and also for the little girl who waited for her in Tokyo, completely alone and uncertain of her own future. . . a girl left alone like the one she had been a lifetime ago.
And Aoshi sat there and simply waited, his hand pressing lightly on her back offering support as she continued to cry. For how long they sat there, neither one knew. perhaps a half-hour or more.
But suddenly, she could think of nothing except little Meg-chan.
As she found herself asking Aoshi about the little girl, both knew then that she was done with her mourning, not just for her brother, but for everything in her life. And that she had made up her mind to return to Tokyo with him.
In her mind, there could be no other path other than this one. They would leave before the end of the week, risking crossing the ocean during the worst of times. But the letter she had in her hand was reason enough to risk it all.
~
As they sat down to dinner, both realized that the Harris family would have to be told of this sudden change.
"I'm glad you were able to come, "Mrs. Harris spoke to Aoshi, after exchanging a glance with her husband seated across from her at the table. They had noticed something different about Miss Megumi. "You've obviously brought some welcome news to Megumi."
Grace couldn't contain herself then. "Oh Miss Megumi, if you have something to tell us, please do!! I don't want to wait until after dinner!"
"Grace!" Her father warned.
"No," Megumi looked over at Aoshi, who had conveniently taken a moment to wipe his mouth with a napkin. "It's alright. I've some news for you. Mr. Shinomori and I will be leaving for Tokyo--"
"Congratulations!" Mrs. Harris clapped her hands together. The chorus of congratulations immediately continued around the table.
"It's not because of . . . " She flushed as she realized that among one of the things she had never quite shaken after all this time was the family's suspicion that she and the businessman were somehow engaged. "What I mean to say is that, I have found some of my family."
"Why, that's wonderful news!" Mrs. Harris and Dr. Harris looked pleased. "After all this time, too!"
"I have a niece now," Megumi gave them a smile. Her eyes took on a soft glow as she recited what she had found in the letter from her brother that she had opened just before dinner. "She's three. Actually, she'll be four in two months. If all goes well, I'll be there with her to celebrate that birthday."
"Four, what a lovely age," Mrs. Harris stated.
"How nice to be four," Miss Grace sighed. "I wish I weren't so old!"
At that response, the rest of the family laughed. Miss Grace frowned for a moment, but as they continued to laugh at her dramatics, her frown thawed and she smiled. And so the conversation continued smoothly, such that the rest of dinner was truly a happy affair for all seated at the large table.
From his seat, Aoshi sat listening and observing, satisfied with how things had turned out. As his eyes met with Megumi's, he was pleased to see her smile back. The woman who now sat across from him looked as if years of burden had been lifted from her entire being. Some purpose drove her now.
That sight assured him that after all this time, he had managed to keep the promise he had made to the doctor.
Megumi would be with her family at last.
=====
A/N:
*I might have described them as green earlier. I don't remember. Well, his eyes are ambiguous. *shrug*
In the previous section I did take the reviewers' comments under consideration, but I decided to downplay the Sano angle over other things. I may someday change this as I consider archiving it up at other places. But I wrote this before the other section and just wanted to get it out because I love this chapter. To me, I could it end it in one more chapter. I believe that Megumi would be happy with little Meg-chan. And the men, well, they can go cope :-p
But there is also a lot more to explore. If you guys are willing to risk a long time between updates as it gets closer to school, I can keep going. So in your reviews, please tell me how you honestly feel. Don't worry about "pressure," I really want to know. I can't promise that little Meg- chan won't seriously change the story though. She brings in a whole new dimension to the argument of who is better for Megs. (Sano wins hands down in the kids department.)
OH, btw, the Jinchuu arc was never ever animated. It was shown in the OVAs but that's it. So you're going to have to look at the manga and simply enjoy it as it is. IT is just so cool. email me directly if you want the link to maigo-chan's translations.
It was winter now. It was now more than half a year since she left Tokyo for someplace on the other side of the world.
There would have been snow on the ground in Tokyo as well. But here, the snow was grey, turned dark by the grime of the city.
She knew that the seasons were the same, but they somehow felt different here in the city called Philadelphia. Even when inside, she never seemed to be able to shake the cold from her body.
For now, the women's college was on holiday. And so she was here with the Harris family, Miss Grace and all of her brothers and sisters included among them. It had been a busy two weeks where the family had all converged upon the home to turn it into a warm, noisy, place filled with laughter. She was able to enjoy it with them, most of the time. Sometimes, though, she held herself apart and simply watched.
Her brothers and sister, her mother, and her father - - she reflected that they too had a happy life like this once. Until the revolution.
They were on her mind almost all the time now. During the darkest times of her life, the hope of seeing them again had sustained her. An orphan, left all alone and aware of all the stories going around about her, she endured the looks of pity or outright scorn from those who knew of her family. They were once a proud family, but had met with disaster. She had avoided the suggestions from people suggesting she simply settle down and instead apprenticed herself to a doctor. She had decided to be no ordinary woman when she grew up; someday she would be a doctor and carry out her family's proud tradition.
For a while - she felt as if she would reach that dream. The doctor was a kind man and a good doctor. Unfortunately, he was a bit foolish.
And so began her personal hell under Kanryuu --- one which nearly drove her to the brink of suicide more than once. But the dim hope of her family kept her from completely breaking. And that hope revived when she found herself suddenly freed from Takeda and amongst friends who believed in her.
That hope wavered the day she met that man on the field. Yasitare Ryuji, or so he called himself. But she was not fooled, not from the moment she saw him. She knew him as her Kenichi.
She hadn't meant to run to him. She hadn't meant to talk to him. But in that one moment, she had lost all her senses and tried to tell him that she had looked for him all that time.
He had silenced her then with his own words. He had known all about her. He had kept tabs on her all these years, and had heard rumors of her talents with drugs. He despised her. Enough to change his name.
"I hated you." The words echoed in her head as he had walked away, and continued to do so now.
She deserved those words. To think she had ever once thought that she would be able to find her family and earn their forgiveness -- it had been a naive foolish thought. To go back to her friends and have to tell them those words as well. It would crush them as much as it crushed her. Rather than face them, she would hide away and suffer alone, trying to avoid anything that would remind her of Kenichi.
Even when Aoshi Shinomori's letters came trying to explain his own dark past, it didn't erase Kenichi's words to her.
A sudden knock came at the door. "Miss Megumi," the maid curtseyed as she entered. "You have a guest in the drawing room."
"A guest?"
"A gentleman." The maid's look was a bit curious. "Mrs. Harris says he's a friend of yours."
"I see," Megumi straightened her skirts and picked up a folder of papers before following her out. "Thank you."
She was expecting a Dr. Weston, one of Dr. Harris' interns, to call on her. He had mentioned it to her this morning over breakfast. The folder contained papers for a patient whom Dr. Harris had visited at home; the patient's papers would be need to be carried back to the hospital.
As she neared the parlor, she could hear the low tones of the young man and the laughter of Mrs. Harris and Miss Harris through the door that stood only slightly open. They were talking about the snow.
"Dr. Weston--" Megumi apologized as she pushed the door open. "I'm sorry to make you wait."
As she looked at their guest standing by one of the large windows, her eyes widened.
The man standing there was not Dr. Watson. As the gentleman turned his blue-grey* eyes upon her, all sensible thoughts left her head.
"Megumi, dear," Mrs. Harris said kindly. "Mr. Shinomori has come all this way to talk to you."
She suddenly remembered herself. She began with a polite greeting and automatically bowed, "It is good to see you."
Miss Grace giggled at Megumi's lapse in behavior. The situation had called for a curtsey, but Aoshi smiled nonetheless.
"It is good to see you." He answered.
"Come, Grace," Mrs. Harris said brightly. "I will need your help in the kitchen. I asked Mr. Shinomori to stay for dinner."
Grace gave her a puzzled glance but snapped to attention when Mrs. Harris winked. "Yes, mother," she suddenly exclaimed. With a curtsey, the two women left the parlor, leaving Megumi and Aoshi alone.
To cover her surprise at his appearance, she sat down in a chair facing him. He continued to stand by the window, but turned slightly to look at her.
She hesitated before she continued on in Japanese. It had been so long since she had used the language. "I did not mean to be rude. It's just that you surprised me. Did you have a good journey?"
He nodded. "It was a rather long crossing. It's taken me weeks to get here."
"Are you here on business?" She was still puzzled.
"I am here for you." He answered simply. "There are things to discuss."
She looked away, "You could have just written, Aoshi-san. What could possibly be worth such a long journey?"
"There are things to discuss that are better not left to letters. I have news for you."
Her eyes turned back towards him, worried. "What is it?"
"Yasitare Ryuji is dead."
She exhaled sharply and then composed herself. "That is sad news."
The look he gave her was incredulous. "Your brother is dead, and you can say only that?"
She avoided his scrutiny by averting her face. "I was dead to him a long time ago. I am not allowed to shed tears for a man to whom I did not exist."
Aoshi stooped next to her to look at her. "So, was that the reason for why you told me that the man wasn't your brother?"
"I lied," she tried to make her voice sound flat. "But I had good reason to. He wished it that way."
"He was lying himself. Your brother did not send you away because he hated you."
"You say that," she whispered, her eyes blinking in an attempt to hold back tears. "But you didn't hear what he told me that day when I was in the field. He knew exactly who I was, and what I had done under Kanryuu. He told me that he would forget he ever saw me and that I was to do the same. He hated me and couldn't forgive me."
He looked at her squarely in the face. "The revolution did not leave anyone of our generation untouched. Why would a man with as much to repent for hate his sister for doing what she needed to do in order to survive? "
Megumi closed her eyes. "Even after knowing what he had done, it doesn't change the fact that I dishonored the family name by keeping it and doing all those terrible things as a Takani. He hated the very sight of me because of it."
"No." Aoshi shook his head as if talking to a dense pupil. "He forgave you that a long time ago. He was trying to push you away from him to protect you. There were still those who watched him carefully." When she did not acknowledge that what he said was sensible or possible, he forced her to take a letter in her hand. "He left this for you. Please read it."
She held it for a moment and looked at it, her hand trembling. She finally looked at Aoshi with something like fear in her eyes. "I can't."
"Then," he continued talking to her patiently, "Allow me to tell you about another letter which I received. It first came to Gensai-sensei, who brought it to Himura's attention. I was the only one who knew where Yasitare was to be found, and so I was asked to help Himura."
Although her eyes were fixed on the floor, she was listening. "In that letter, Yasitare mentioned something that he wanted you to have, to guard as your own. It was his only good work in his life, he said. And so I went to retrieve that treasure."
When she did not speak or respond, he continued on more quietly, "That treasure - -- was a child."
She started. "A child?"
"Your brother's child. She was being cared for by the townsfolk when I arrived."
As the news registered in her mind, she suddenly reached out and held onto his arm for support. "Where is she now??"
"She is with Kaoru and Kenshin in Tokyo, waiting for me to bring you back."
"Kenichi's daughter," she mused. She looked up at him, almost shyly. "What is her name?"
He smiled slightly back at her. "Her name is Megumi."
"Megumi?"
A look of stupefied wonder crossed her face, followed by an odd mixture of sadness and relief. She found herself suddenly on her knees next to him, overwhelmed by the sudden insight into her brother's mind and heart. "Kenichi," she cried, not knowing what else to say.
"Yes," he answered as he wiped the tears that flowed freely down her face now -- tears of sadness, hope and happiness. "He forgave you a long time ago, after all."
She buried her face in his chest, allowing herself then to grieve -- for a brother who she had only barely seen and also for the little girl who waited for her in Tokyo, completely alone and uncertain of her own future. . . a girl left alone like the one she had been a lifetime ago.
And Aoshi sat there and simply waited, his hand pressing lightly on her back offering support as she continued to cry. For how long they sat there, neither one knew. perhaps a half-hour or more.
But suddenly, she could think of nothing except little Meg-chan.
As she found herself asking Aoshi about the little girl, both knew then that she was done with her mourning, not just for her brother, but for everything in her life. And that she had made up her mind to return to Tokyo with him.
In her mind, there could be no other path other than this one. They would leave before the end of the week, risking crossing the ocean during the worst of times. But the letter she had in her hand was reason enough to risk it all.
~
As they sat down to dinner, both realized that the Harris family would have to be told of this sudden change.
"I'm glad you were able to come, "Mrs. Harris spoke to Aoshi, after exchanging a glance with her husband seated across from her at the table. They had noticed something different about Miss Megumi. "You've obviously brought some welcome news to Megumi."
Grace couldn't contain herself then. "Oh Miss Megumi, if you have something to tell us, please do!! I don't want to wait until after dinner!"
"Grace!" Her father warned.
"No," Megumi looked over at Aoshi, who had conveniently taken a moment to wipe his mouth with a napkin. "It's alright. I've some news for you. Mr. Shinomori and I will be leaving for Tokyo--"
"Congratulations!" Mrs. Harris clapped her hands together. The chorus of congratulations immediately continued around the table.
"It's not because of . . . " She flushed as she realized that among one of the things she had never quite shaken after all this time was the family's suspicion that she and the businessman were somehow engaged. "What I mean to say is that, I have found some of my family."
"Why, that's wonderful news!" Mrs. Harris and Dr. Harris looked pleased. "After all this time, too!"
"I have a niece now," Megumi gave them a smile. Her eyes took on a soft glow as she recited what she had found in the letter from her brother that she had opened just before dinner. "She's three. Actually, she'll be four in two months. If all goes well, I'll be there with her to celebrate that birthday."
"Four, what a lovely age," Mrs. Harris stated.
"How nice to be four," Miss Grace sighed. "I wish I weren't so old!"
At that response, the rest of the family laughed. Miss Grace frowned for a moment, but as they continued to laugh at her dramatics, her frown thawed and she smiled. And so the conversation continued smoothly, such that the rest of dinner was truly a happy affair for all seated at the large table.
From his seat, Aoshi sat listening and observing, satisfied with how things had turned out. As his eyes met with Megumi's, he was pleased to see her smile back. The woman who now sat across from him looked as if years of burden had been lifted from her entire being. Some purpose drove her now.
That sight assured him that after all this time, he had managed to keep the promise he had made to the doctor.
Megumi would be with her family at last.
=====
A/N:
*I might have described them as green earlier. I don't remember. Well, his eyes are ambiguous. *shrug*
In the previous section I did take the reviewers' comments under consideration, but I decided to downplay the Sano angle over other things. I may someday change this as I consider archiving it up at other places. But I wrote this before the other section and just wanted to get it out because I love this chapter. To me, I could it end it in one more chapter. I believe that Megumi would be happy with little Meg-chan. And the men, well, they can go cope :-p
But there is also a lot more to explore. If you guys are willing to risk a long time between updates as it gets closer to school, I can keep going. So in your reviews, please tell me how you honestly feel. Don't worry about "pressure," I really want to know. I can't promise that little Meg- chan won't seriously change the story though. She brings in a whole new dimension to the argument of who is better for Megs. (Sano wins hands down in the kids department.)
OH, btw, the Jinchuu arc was never ever animated. It was shown in the OVAs but that's it. So you're going to have to look at the manga and simply enjoy it as it is. IT is just so cool. email me directly if you want the link to maigo-chan's translations.
